In two and a half years we will be there: in the year 2000.

A hundred years ago people waited for the turn of the century with enthusiastic hopes. The time ahead then promised progress in an extent that never had been dreamt of before.

Europe experienced the turn of her capitals into pompous symbols of national pride. America perceived the future as a wide open land of freedom and productivity. In the Colonies of the world the ruling classes had no doubt in their everlasting presence. The voice of the so-called developing countries was not yet articulated.

The turn of the last century was a festival of optimism. On Piccadilly and Times Square, on the Champs Elysees and in the front of the Casa Rosada the people celebrated with joy. On New Year's Eve of the year 1900 the new Century was welcomed in euphoric hope for a better future.

We, who are living - one hundred years later - wait for the turn of the century in two and a half years, know, how relatively little of their naive believe indeed has come true in the twentieth century.

We, the people of this century, experienced the progress and the denial of human rights, incredible technological advancement but also its bad impact on environment. We live with the promises of utopia and the miseries of reality.

Our generation moves towards the beginning of a new millennium with a rather modest position. The time of naive believe in progress has gone. It is replaced by a realistic approach to overcome the mountain of tasks ahead of us. And one of the tasks is to provide the benefits of sport to everybody.

What will sport look likq after the change of the century?. What will it mean in ten years from now? Which role will sport play in the adult life of our children?

I am not a prophet. But I have seen structural developments in the recent years occurring in very different countries from highly industrialized to more agriculturally oriented nations. And interestingly there are some common characteristics from which one can deduct general factors of sport development.

Which are such general factors?

1. Sport participation will grow enormously
2. Sport will have two definitely different but equally important forms: performance sport and Sport for All
3. Sport will constitute a contemporary popular culture practiced by a majority
4. Sport will provide a web of smaller and real social (face to face) entities in a globalized and computerized world
5. Sport will play a major social role f.i. in a longer lasting I life, for coping with wanted and unwanted leisure, to counterbalance social conflicts and to build national identity in ethnically mixed societies
6. Sport will play a major role for public health
7. Sport will be a factor for new markets

The growth of participation in sport would be, beneficial, for the human life quality as it would have. an impact on health, culture and social conditions.

It is worthwhile to look at such interactions of sport development and general progress.

In the last ten years there has been a non-foreseen upswing in sport participations All countries which have participated in the last official TAFISA survey report a definite growth in participation.

Let us remember that only a few decades ago sport participation even in the most active countries had only around 10 percent. It is our generation that experiences one of the most definite changes in lifestyle towards physical activity. Whereas the last generation seemed to enjoy the comfort of sedentary life and physical laziness, the generation living today is exploring again the adventures and enjoyments of games, bi.king, surfing, walking, dancing as a substitute obviously for the lost normality of movement in everyday life.

It was during my study years at the German University of Physical Education in Cologne, that I for the first time understood: there is another world of sport activities beyond the one that appears in the Olympics. One of our students had himself, shipped a Malacamb from India, a three meter high beam with,a smooth surface on which he demonstrated difficult Yoga-like gymnastic exercises, Another student from Iran presented the strength training of Bastani which has a thousand year old tradition in his country. And then in another year we had the visit of a Master of Japanese archery.

In the meanwhile we know that the traditional sports and games of the world by far outnumber the contemporary sports which can be seen in the Olympic Games or in the World Games. It was a wise decision of TAFISA to look after the traditional games not only because of their cultural values but also because many of them are a resource of Sport for All.

Many of these games, sports and dances present a possibility of activity of the general population in their home countries. More and more sportleaders and sport ministers have changed their view about the value of these activities and about the benefits of Sport for All for their countries.

Sport programs, so has been our hope, can actively contribute to social weliness and social integration. It is indeed a task a I ' g especially in the poor areas of the world whether in Mexico or in Lagos, in Rio or in Dakar. Sport for All activities for the young boys Olympics. One of our students had himself, shipped a Malacamb from India, a three meter high beam with la smooth surface on which he demonstrated difficult Yoga-like gymnastic exercises, Another student from Iran presented the strength training of Bastani which has a thousand year old tradition in his country. And then in another year we had the visit of a Master of Japanese archery.

In the meanwhile we know that the traditional sports and games of the world by far outnumber the contemporary sports which can be seen in the Olympic Games or in the World Games. It was a wise decision of TAFISA to look after the traditional games not only because of their cultural values but also because many of them are a resource of Sport for All.

Many of these games, sports and dances present a possibility of activity of the general population in their home countries. More and more sportleaders and sport ministers have changed their view about the value of these activities and about the benefits of Sport for All for their countries.

Sport programs, so has been our hope, can actively contribute to social wellness and social integration. It is indeed a task arising especially in the poor areas of the world whether in Mexico or in Lagos, in Rio or in Dakar. Sport for All activities for the young boys and girls but also for the mothers and fathers will present some hope for finding at least partially enjoyment and togetherness. In the Inner-City-programs of big American towns this is as well a concept as in the changing societies of South Africa, for the population boom in Seoul, or in the changing societies and their new awarenesses in the Pacific.

TAFISA received a book from the Sport for All movement in Peru: "Tiempo libre y pobreza urbana" (translated: Leisure time and urban poverty). The photos present you with a social miracle. Amidst the misery, the unemployment, the poorest living conditions in one of the slum satellites of Lima there is a sport center which has been built with the help of the people living there and now is maintained by self-organized work of these people. The name of this town is Villa Maria del Triunfo. And it is indeed a "triumph".

Sport for All programs obviously are able to help explore the most important factor in human development: the learning of one's own, role in improving life conditions.

Villa Maria del Triunfo is a model that should be studied by all countries that have similar problems. Sport is not the number one answer for the misery coming out of the migrations in developing countries but it offers besides its entertaining and health improving qualities also an approach to motivate self organization.,

The human being has always been and will always be a moving species, homo movens. Space in which to move is life-essential to us. If we would indeed restrict ourselves to a sedentary life our bodies would deteriorate and our children not only physically but also mentally and socially would not socialize completely into human beings.

However for an ever increasing majority of today's living humans the style of life in a few generations has changed from a highly active existence as farmers, workers, craftsmen into sedentary inhabitants with a frightening inactive lifestyle.

So the playgrounds and sportfields, the gymnasiums and tennis courts are substitutes for an anthropological must: movement in space. The highest demands are to be found in the exploding urban metropolises, like Buenos Aires, with their traffic and their close-up living. Here today the provision of space for play and activity has become smaller than for any generation living before.

In European countries very early and often already in the last century the necessity of space and movement for society was understood and they planned parks, gardens, open spaces and sport facilities.

In the fast growing metropolises of today it is mostly the other way around. Every available space is covered and sport facilities are far away if existing at all. We need a similar effort for human exercise like the one which has successfully been materialized in the environment movement to make the governments of the world understand that we need environment for the essential human quality of moving and playing.

If the human body and the development of its capacities are an elementary condition for living a true life, then Sport for All is an essential approach to a more human life in the future. When we learn that sport is not just a physical activity which can be measured in points or seconds,

but it is an interhuman act,
a social process,
a stimulus to health,
a resource of joy,
a chance to play conflicts
instead to fight conflicts: then indeed Sport for All is a message to the world.

It is a message for politicians, for scientists, for city planners, for educators. for doctors, social street workers, environmentalists and many more.

The contribution of Sport to a lifeworthy world goes much further indeed than its effect on the body alone. Environment begins inside of all of us, our bodies are part of environment. It is the total system of this planet, it's plants and animals and human beings that make up our world. This world is in danger. The pollution that we produce, the blindness with which we tolerate the extinction of hundreds of thousands of kinds of plants and animals makes us fear for a dying globe. This globe is not just an environment for factories, for cars and products. Our globe is in first hand the world of life. Life in its millions of forms must be protected against damage and destruction. One fine example of nature is present in our bodies. And our bodies need an environment in which to move.

So, when we are speaking of sport in the future we must understand our role in keeping the world a space in which human mobility does not destroy but celebrate life.

Therefore Sport for All is a natural and logical partner of the environmental movement. Both indeed depend in the most elementary way upon each other. Both are life protectors.

Since hundred years, under the provision of science a partly successful fight against the communicable diseases has eliminated or limited many of the infectious diseases in many countries of the world.

It is now the time to join our forces in a second worldwide fight against the other, the non-infectious diseases of mankind. In this fight there are several devilish attractions to deal with tobacco, alcohol, drugs on one side and physical laziness on the other side.

So if you have so far not yet experienced the vision of the highest priority in our work, it could become clear now: we are workers in the garden of health. By assisting the individuals in our society with better knowledge, insight, motivations and chances to participate in regular and moderate physical activity we are adding life qualities to their private existence and by that to the prosperity of our nations. The utopia of Sport for All can become a most productive hope to improve the art and joy of living.

If this utopia will be fulfilled, if indeed every human being would be physically active about 30 minutes a day on a not to low but also not to a high level of intensity than we would feel better for the remaining 23 and a half hours of this same day., We would have more stamina for work, family life and personal hobbies and have a stronger protection against the challenges and frustrations of daily occupation.

All I say can be scientifically proved. To integrate physical activity into the personal lifestyle is in principle a rather simple task. It is indeed easier to understand it than to apply in reality. How to proceed, how to succeed?

We are allowed, to make attractive promises. To win the individual as our ally we must be able to give him a present, a reward. Also in winning our governments and the industry and business world of our countries for this item we must also give them a reward. What can we promise?

The individual that we want to convince of course is spoiled. Too widespread is the believe that health is provided by the pharmaceutical industry and that our physical well-being can be enhanced by chemical products. It seem easier indeed to take three times daily three pills than to take the bicycle out of the garage. This seemingly easy procedure of stuffing our organism with chemical products against hundreds of different inconveniences has indeed produced the largest industry in the world. Would you ever have realized that not agriculture, not tourism and not the automobile industry have the highest turnover in the world's economy, but the so called "sickness industry"? This sickness industry is bigger than the military-industry. In my home country, in Germany, the products and services to deal with diseases and their consequences amount to 300 billion u$s.

Not all of it but a lot of that is avoidable,

Let us come back to the question of how to reward the individual? I think we have to balance favorably between the output of physical energy on one hand and the outcome of physical, emotional and social pleasures on the other hand.

Luckily the medical sciences have provided us with the fact that for health benefits strenuous physical work is not necessary. It has been proved that we don't have to torture your body to keep it fit. If you are not aiming for a personal championship or optimal skills then moderate activity is enough. We don't have to run marathon or endure an hour-long strenuous aerobic class. A brisk walk is already beneficial on the basic level.

So for the individual the fear of exhaustion and personal failure is not necessary. We can convince her or him that his/her personal input into physical activity can be definitely below his capacity. And we can promise that according to the activity that he or she uses, there is already a high chance of pleasure in the act itself. We can expect positively felt,physical selfperception, a certain feeling of a spiritual lift, a joyfulness,of moving the body. We can enjoy the interaction with nature and with other persons. And of course there is a rewarding feeling after the activity that your body has undergone a restoration and renovation. You have ca ured a s irit which gives you energies through the day.

So it is not only an abstract understanding of health that we are promising the physically active individual. We can also promise an instant improvement of the physical, emotional and social well-being during and after a run, a cycling tour, a round of dances, an aerobic class, an ball game or an early morning swim.

But what can be promised to Ministers in our governments or Presidents of business and industry?

In general we can describe the enormous waste of human and economical resources followed by physical inactivity. Around the world the costs of diseases and incapacities by physical inactivity amount to hundres of billions of u$s. Cardiovascular diseases of avoidable form consume enormous parts of the national health budgets. This is only a part of a story which hinders our nations, our populations and our business to grow into a higher quality of life.

The increase of physical activity, a more widely spread participation in sport have a highly beneficial impact on the national economy. Healthy populations spend much less on diseases, enhance the level of production, have less absenteeism and create new markets. The sport products' and sport services' markets belong to the fastest growing in the developed countries and hold this potential for the developing countries, too. And beyond sport products and sport services there are other areas to be mentioned like tourism wellness industry, the fashion and the media industry.

At the last World Forum 1995 in Quebec, Canada, sponsored by UNESCO; the IOC, WHO and WSGI, a Scientific Symposium gave a very impressive overview of what the medical sciences know today about the role of physical inactivity for the development of diseases and the impact of physical exercise for the enhancement of health. Let me quote just a few of the conclusions.

A sedentary lifestyle may influence the initiation, progression and recovery from a variety of vascular and metabolic disturbances. In contrast regular physical activity is increasingly recognized as a measure decreasing the risk levels for these disturbances.

There is growing evidence for a protective role of physical activity against the risk of stroke.

There is an approximate doubling in risk of coronary heart disease when the least active individuals are compared with their most active counterparts.

Physical activity has the potential to postpone or prevent muscular- skeleton disorders such as mechanical lowback pain, back- shoulder pain and osteoporosis and related fractures.

Substantial parts of the age-related decline in functional capabilities is not due to aging -but to decreasedland insufficient physical activity.

Physical activity decreases risk of developing colon but not rectal cancer.

In healthy persons moderate physical activity can enhance immune function.

Exercise has a moderate to large beneficial effect on mild to moderate depression.

Where do we the Sport for All experts come into this overall picture?

We come in to build the bridge from knowledge to application.

The task of the Sport for All experts is

to take a responsible position in the improvement of health and well-being,

to learn the role of physical activity for the improvement of health,

to formulate programs according to the needs of specific population groups especially the less active,

to translate the evidence of science into an understandable message for the ordinary person,

to use our networks and channels to make the benefits of regular moderate activity available to everybody through campaign, education, publication, program and facility development,

to win supporters in governments, business and industry of our countries.

But there is not only medical evidence for the benefit of physical activity.

The psychologist and the psychiatrist have found definite relationships between physical activity and emotional well-being, stress-reduction and even mental problems.

Sociologists are examining the interpersonal processes in play and sport and their role in the socialization of the human being.

Ethnologists have explored the roles of games and other physical cultures in the development and selfunderstanding of societies. There is a strong support that the traditional sports of the world belong to the cultural heritage of mankind. UNESCO as the highest cultural authority in the world has grated patronage to the second World Festival of Traditional Sports.

The research of economists has revealed that in our contemporary society sport has created new markets. In highly industrialized countries the sport and fitness products and services establish a major field of the leisure industry which for instance in the United States with equipment facilities, services, travel etc. measured more than 80 billion US Dollars annually. To a smaller but also definite estend this will become effective also in developing countries.

We have the prove in our hand that the role of Sport in our present and future society is essential to well-being and improving living conditions. Without hesitation we can address health ministers, industrialists, media tycoons and other representatives of this society who hold power in their hand. We can give them the convincing arguments for support.

We are in a politically convincing position of sport in a future oriented society for instance because of:

• the cost reduction in national health care,
• the contribution of sport as a counter-measure to social connflicts,
• the role of sport in contemporary popular culture,
• the development of a market of leisure goods and services with a growing importance for the national economy.

Let me come to the end. At the change of this century we as sport leaders are responsible that the elementary right of every human being to live actively in this world, to enjoy the benefits of exercise and play should become a reality.

Thank you!

Buenos Aires, june 1997